Supermarkets play an important role in industrialized food systems, which is why many in academia, politics, industry, and civil society view them as key players in transforming the food system toward greater sustainability. We analyse narratives and proposed solutions in this context, as well as the role of supermarkets in Germany, home...

The workshop “Promoting Water Tenure for Food Security, Climate Resilience, and Equity” was implemented by FAO and adelphi on 18 and 29 June in Berlin, Germany, with the support of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), and the German Corporation...

Euromontana kicks off the year with the publication of its annual booklet of good practices for sustainable mountain development. This publication showcases 10 inspiring initiatives from across Europe (EU and non-EU) collected by Euromontana throughout 2023 to promote initiatives that drive sustainable change in mountain areas. The booklet covers key issues for...

Bioeconomy is credited as being one of the key pillars for the FAO Strategic Framework 2022–2031 to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. More than 60 countries and regions have a dedicated bioeconomy or bioscience strategy today, and many more are already implementing the bioeconomy with plans and...

Enthusiastic fans see hemp as a crop that can meet current challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity. But can hemp really fulfill this expectation and what potential does the plant offer organic farms in Switzerland? A new fact sheet provides essential information on organic hemp cultivation for interested...

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) seeks to address injustices in the food system by supporting small-scale farmers applying agroecological practices through a long-term partnership: a community of members covers the cost of production and receives a share of the harvest throughout the season in return. Despite an orientation towards a more...

Listen to what German farmers have to say about their experience with Agroforestry in this video about the AGROMIX German pilot project field visit. The field visit was coordinated by IfaS which took place on the 9th of February 2023 in Palatinate, Germany. The field visit took participants around three...

Germany’s agriculture ministry is pushing for more organic food in canteens and restaurants in a first step towards achieving the coalition’s 2030 goal of ensuring 30% of arable land is dedicated to organic farming. At the end of 2021, Germany’s government coalition agreed that organic farming should account for 30% of arable land...

Fruit grower Clemens Köster and consultant Bastian Benduhn (Öko-Obstbau Norddeutschland) present measures to increase biodiversity in organic orchards. 00:00 Introduction 00:22 Flowering strips 01:38 Hedges 02:27 Anchor plants

Environmental policy integration (EPI), that is, the incorporation of environmental concerns in non-environmental policy areas, has been widely adopted in public policies. However, EPI research has found much discrepancy between environmental objectives and actual implementation. This paper argues that analyzing EPI in the context of policy mixes with multiple objectives,...

In the last years, Agroecology Europe started to map agroecological initiatives in different countries or regions of Europe with the aim to support the development of agroecology in Europe, raise awareness for it and thereby strengthen agroecology in Europe. This work, namely the mapping of initiatives, writing of reports and coordination...

his first book volume collects country reports produced by the AE4EU Horizon 2020 project and the European Association Agroecology Europe which involved a large number of organisations, as well as more than 25 "mappers" who conducted the work in different European countries. Among them were many members of the Agroecology...

The programme EUR-Organic follows a holistic approach involving all aspects of organic food systems. The students profit from the distinct research foci of the partner universities, which in turn are reflected in the diverse specialisations available for students participating in the programme. None of the partner universities alone can offer such a wide...

Agroecology holds that agricultures that are part of sustainable food systems are closely interwoven with local contexts and communities. These agricultures are embedded into farmers’ local and practice knowledge which is articulated in constructive ways with scientific knowledge. They combine producers’ concerns with concerns of consumers and environmental protection and...

Agricultural journalists are actors in the ecosystem of agricultural innovation communication and therefore important for EU-FarmBook. EU-FarmBook supports the activities of the European Network of Agricultural Journalists (ENAJ), because journalists play an important role in the most relevant target groups of EU-FarmBook, such as farmers, advisors and decision makers. ENAJ is...

Documenting and analyzing the development of agroecology in different countries and context is important to enhance up and out-scaling of agroecology at the European level. Based on the AE4EU project (Agroecology for Europe https://www.ae4eu.eu), a mapping of agroecology in Austria and Germany in its different dimensions was achieved to provide...

Documenting and analyzing the development of agroecology in different countries and context is important to enhance and out-scaling of agroecology at the European level. Based on the AE4EU project (Agroecology for Europe https://www.ae4eu.eu), a mapping of agroecology in Austria and Germany in its different dimensions was achieved to provide an...

Agriculture needs to adapt to climate change to ensure food security. Agroforestry systems could help make farms more resilient, but they only constitute a fraction of farming in Europe. Is it time for change?

Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL October 2022 Newsletter News highlighting FiBL’s research, training and advisory services

  Agriculture is a major threat to global biodiversity. A common claim is that large-scale agro-industrial farming is mainly responsible for the biodiversity decline, while smaller family farms are more wildlife friendly. Here we leverage a natural experiment along the former inner German border to estimate the causal impact of farm...